Archive for libya terrorist attack

Call the Waahmbulance! WaPo’s Chris Cillizza hurt GOP Sen. Ron Johnson’s wittle feewings

whining wahmbulance

Call the waaahmbulance, stat! GOP Sen. Ron Johnson is throwing a tantrum because the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza awarded him a “Worst Week In Washington” award for accusing Hillary Clinton of fake-crying during her testimony about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, per TPM:

Now Johnson is doing a little “crying” himself because Cillizza called him out:

“The Washington Post – the poster child of Washington status quo – said I had the ‘Worst Week in Washington… Benghazi was a failure of leadership by Secretary Clinton: before, during and after the terrorist attack. I dared to actually demand that Secretary Clinton explain why she refused to debrief her own staff and then provide truthful information to the American people… In Washington, demanding the truth is apparently a sin… “

Johnson should know all about sin. He just committed another one.

More at TPM.

VIDEO: Once again, Lindsey Graham whines about Amb. Susan Rice’ Benghazi intel talking points defense

(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Little Lindsey Graham is in Rejection Mode again. He’s rejecting Susan Rice’s and the Obama administration’s intel-written explanations of the Benghazi attacks… again, although he did entertain the idea of Rice’s potential nomination as Secretary of State.

How big of Little.

But that didn’t stop him from tantruming and pointing fingers. Hell, he’s got bigger fish to fry! Back down now? Not when his BFF John McCain is out there on every talk show every Sunday sounding his familiar loony refrains, including his latest: John McCain: President Obama Is The Real Problem, Not Susan Rice,

Little Lindsey on This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: All the evidence is that Ambassador Rice was using the information given to her by the intelligence community.

GRAHAM:

“I don’t – I don’t believe that… We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

I blame the president above all others.”

When she [Rice] comes over, if she does, there will be a lot of questions asked of her about this event and others. But I do not believe the video is the cause …”

“I don’t believe the video is the reason for this. I don’t believe it was ever the reason for this. That was a political story, not an intel story, and we’re going to hold people accountable…”

So there! Even though the intelligence community didn’t release classified information and did release the Rice talking points, Lindsey is insisting it was all some kind of vast left wing conspiracy to get President Obama re-elected. Why, that’s … that’s… gotta be impeachable!

As you can see from the video, he went on and on, including his insistence on pushing for an investigation into Benghazi “like we got to the bottom of Iran-Contra. We’re not going to let up on this.”

No, weekly cranky white Republican Sunday spokesbabblers, President Obama isn’t the real problem. The anti-Obama, anti-Rice GOP conspiracy nutballs are.

Link

VIDEO: Oops! Condoleezza Rice on Benghazi: “Not always easy to know what is really going on on the ground… let relevant bodies do their work.”

Via Think Progress.

Former GW Bush Secretary of State Condi ruined all the Republicans’ (and Fox’s Greta  Van Susteren’s) fun, stomping all over their conspiratorial talking points and using– What’s it called again? Oh yeah– reason and calm:

“But when things are unfolding very, very quickly, it’s not always easy to know what is really going on on the ground. And to my mind, the really important questions here are about how information was collected. Did the various agencies really coordinate and share intelligence in the way that we had hoped, with the reforms that were made after 9/11?”

“So there’s a big picture to be examined here. But we don’t have all of the pieces, and I think it’s easy to try and jump to conclusions about what might have happened here. It’s probably better to let the relevant bodies do their work.”

VIDEO: Rudy Giuliani refuses to answer question in heated exchange with Soledad O’Brien over Benghazi

“WMD? Nope, no weapons over there … maybe under here?”

Rudy Giuliani went on for what seemed like more than a week about it taking more than a week for the Obama administration to call the Libya attack “spontaneous”. Of course, as Soledad O’Brien pointed out, information changed as time went on and was shared as it came in, plus CBS reported that the evidence undermined right-wing charges of an administration “cover-up”.

Matthew Dowd, a former Bush administration official, reminded everyone that during the Iraq War, it took the Bush administration years to make its case and still got it wrong. Where was Rudy then?

CNN– “This wasn’t two weeks. This was months and months and months of a conversation where we never got the right answer to this,” Dowd said on ABC’s “This Week.”

O’Brien:

“It took years…By jumping on so quickly and expecting accurate final answers within weeks is I guess unfair in a way.”

Giuliani:

“We’re going to blame this on Bush, too?”

Um, Rudy? That’s not at all what she (or Dowd) was saying. Answer the damn question.

O’Brien:

You got to stop putting words in my mouth, sir. Seriously, hang on. Let me finish. Every time I ask you a question, you like to push back as if somehow the question that’s being posed to you is unfair. It’s not. I’m a journalist. You said some things. I’m trying to get some accurate responses from you. You are welcome to answer. Go ahead.”

Meanwhile, Romney’s version of meeting Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi was disputed by best friend, mother: “Pathetic & comical”, not to mention Christopher Stevens’ dad said that the Libyan ambassador’s death should not be politicized.

Yet there Rudy is, totally ignoring O’Brien’s point while politicizing what’s left of his brains out.

Darrell Issa on State Department concerns about his damaging Libya doc dump: “That is crap.”

Jay Mallin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

If you’re not up on Darell Issa’s latest mishap, here’s my post: Issa’s Benghazi document dump damages U.S. efforts, put Libyans working with U.S. in danger. While hyperventilating investigating the attacks on the consulate, he disclosed the identities of Libyans who were helping United States officials, and he has yet to take responsibility for that.

Yesterday top Democrats ripped him for his little goof. In addition to the Dems mentioned in my post, other critics included Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Carl Levin, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, according to Josh Rogin in his latest reporting.

But Issa doesn’t care. Rogin reports:

“Congress doesn’t recognize and will not recognize ‘for official use only,’ ‘sensitive.’ Those are not classified. We would note it, but we would continue,” Issa said, according to the released transcript. ”Anything below Secret is in fact just a name on a piece of paper. And I think it is important to understand that. So if you have seen papers that say ‘for official use only,’ ‘State Department sensitive,’ that is crap.”

What a class act.

Josh has more here.

Top Democrats rip Darrell Issa after his document dump endangered Libyans working with U.S., damaged U.S. efforts

Jay Mallin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

This post is dedicated to Romnesiac Rupert Murdoch who tweeted:

 No, Rupie, it is you who is hated, despised, and a joke. Stop projecting.

I tweeted back, “That’s a lie. Nobody “apologized”, but GOP should… starting with Issa.”

If you’re not up on what Issa did, here’s my post: Darrell Issa’s Benghazi document dump damages U.S. efforts, put Libyans working with U.S. in danger. While hyperventilating investigating the attacks on the consulate, he disclosed the identities of Libyans who were helping United States officials, and he has yet to apologize.

The same Overzealous Oversight Guy who has been blasting the administration over security failures after the attacks in Libya and has done everything he can to nail the president on anything he can dig up or make up out of thin air has stepped in it big time.

It’s good to see some Dems getting out in front of this one. David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel both mentioned this embarrassing and dangerous fiasco on Meet the Press and This Week respectively. Now Politico is reporting this:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the release of that information – which is sensitive, but not classified – “a moment of real incompetence and irresponsibility… This is irresponsible and inexcusable, and perhaps worst of all it was entirely avoidable. It is profoundly against America’s interests in a difficult region.”

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee piled on:

“If these reports are accurate, Rep. Issa’s actions are astonishingly reckless, a blatant violation of the rules of the House of Representatives, and another dangerous example of the way Republicans are placing partisan politics above the interests of our nation. It would be an extremely grave consequence of Rep. Issa’s actions if individuals helping our country are harmed and suspects in this attack are able to escape justice.”

Mitt Romney started politicizing the tragedy prematurely, even as events were still unfolding, and his party hasn’t stopped since then. And of course, there was this epic moment of fail:

By the way, CBS reported that the evidence undermined right-wing charges of an administration “cover-up”.

Plus, Romney’s version of meeting Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi was disputed by best friend, mother: “Pathetic & comical”, not to mention Christopher Stevens’ dad said that the Libyan ambassador’s death should not be politicized.

Paints quite a picture, doesn’t it? And now the Issa blunder. Kudos to all who called him out today.

VIDEO– CBS: Evidence Undermines Right-Wing Charges Of An Administration “Cover-Up” On Libya

Via.

Maybe if the GOP would allow the investigation and facts to unfold the way they should and stop their usual politicizing of a horrific situation, we’d better understand what happened, reasonably and accurately. How novel, eh Republicans?

And maybe, just maybe, they should take a good hard look at their own Big Important Oversight Guy who managed to pretty much blow it (Darrell Issa’s Benghazi document dump damages U.S. efforts, put Libyans working with U.S. in danger).

The L.A. Times:

Republicans have zeroed in on possible Al Qaeda ties to the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, and have criticized the Obama administration for not saying early on that it was an act of terrorism. But after five weeks of investigation, U.S. intelligence agencies say they have found no evidence of Al Qaeda participation. [...]

A second U.S. official added, “There isn’t any intelligence that the attackers pre-planned their assault days or weeks in advance.” Most of the evidence so far suggests that “the attackers launched their assault opportunistically after they learned about the violence at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo” earlier that day, the official said. [...]

Tarek, an off-duty police sergeant who asked that his full name be withheld to shield him from reprisals, said he came to the scene about an hour after the attack began and found militants blocking the road leading to the compound.

“They drew their guns on me and they told me that the Americans were abusing our prophet,” he said. “That’s why they said they had come to fight.“… They were extremely well armed, but Libya is awash in weapons. In Benghazi, machine guns and shoulder-fired grenade launchers, many pilfered by rebels from Kadafi’s stocks during the revolution, are sold on the streets. [...]

Republicans began portraying the attack as the work of Al Qaeda, and they accused the administration of deliberately seeking to downplay that possibility.

Now, however, said another official with access to the intelligence, “it may turn out that the initial assessment was not that far off.”

Isn’t all of this what President Obama and others have told us as they’ve learned it? So where exactly was the Obama administration misleading? Reports have trickled in, and as they have, the information has been shared publicly, and it has also changed as more has been learned. But at least it’s been out there as transparently as possible.

How about honoring this, GOP: Christopher Stevens’ dad: Libyan ambassador’s death should not be politicized.